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Not long now: Aston Villa’s walk-out music will have a special poignancy this afternoon. John McGinn leads the troops out to the monster riffola of Ozzy Osbourne’s Crazy Train and pre-match tribute has already been paid to the late Godfather of Metal and Black Sabbath frontman, who passed away a few weeks ago at the age of 76. Bruno Guimaraes wears the captain’s armband for Newcastle and kick-off is just a few minutes away.
Sandro Tonali: Newcastle’s Italian midfielder looks fighting fit and in a very good mood as he makes his way back to the dressing-room following his warm-up having a laugh and a joke with Tino Livramento. En route to the tunnel, he goes out of his way to high five several young Villa fans.
Some correspondence: “As a previously pessimistic Toon fan, our starting XI looks very balanced, steady at the back and middle and hopefully enterprising enough up front without Isak,” writes Jeremy Keady. “Not sure about our depth for today or indeed the coming months, but a point here would be great, considering our next match (Liverpool at home) and tricky first six matches (Villa, Liverpool, Leeds away, Wolves at home, Bournemouth away and Arsenal at home).”
And for balance: “Villa fan here,” writes Karl Ruben Weseth. “I was a bit baffled by the aggregated Guardian prediction that we’d finish fifth as well. I’ve seen a lot of analysis from various writers pointing towards Villa’s squad being settled as a big plus, but to me, the way Emery wasn’t able to crack Glasner’s Palace on the fourth time of asking last season made me fear that he’d hit his ceiling with the club.
“The way he then went on to make a lot of similar mistakes in the way he approached the Man Utd season-ender a couple of weeks later only stoked that fear. Those were arguably the two most important single fixtures last season, and Emery gave both of them away with a confoundingly timid approach. I still think he’s an amazing coach, but my cautiously pessimistic hunch is that this season will see a bit of a regression to mid-table for the Villa.”
Newcastle: Dan “Big Dan Durn” Burn has been talking to TNT Sports ahead of his warm-up and says he’s pleased with how pre-season has gone at Newcastle despite the “external noise” that’s surrounded the club. “We’re starting from zero again, we’ve got a lot to prove and we’re ready to go,” he says.
Asked if the noise in question might have brought the group of footballers who are actually happy to play for Newcatle closer together, he has this to say: “I think so. I mentioned the external noise but we’ve got quite a tight-knit group and we just get on with it. We’ve had four or five weeks now without Alex and for us he’s obviously not involved at the moment but we’ve got players who need to step up and contribute with the goals.”
Aston Villa: Youri Tielemans will make his 100th appearance for Aston Villa this afternoon and as he prepared to mark his century the Belgian sat down for an exclusive interview with our own Ben Fisher to discuss life, the universe and his determination to help end Aston Villa’s 30-year trophy drought.
Aston Villa: Contrary to Unai Emery’s pessimistic view, our writers have predicted a fifth place finish for Aston Villa come season’s end. I would like to distance myself from the collective Guardian hive mind because according to my crystal ball they’ll be finishing ninth.
Newcastle United: If you’d asked me at the end of last season, I’d have predicted that Newcastle would spend big and well this summer, and possibly be in the title race this time around. After the summer they’ve had, I’m more of a mind that they’ll to do well to finish in the top 10. The Guardian Sport collective has them higher up in seventh place.
Today’s match officials
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Referee: Craig Pawson.
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Referee’s assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis and Nick Hopton.
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Fourth official: Simon Hooper.
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VAR: Peter Bankes.
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Assistant VAR: Tim Robinson.
Those teams: With Emi Martinez suspended, Dutch goalkeeper Marco Bizot comes in for his Villa debut after join ing the club from Brest. New signing Evann Guessand is on the bench, while the inclusion of Donyell Malen among the Villa substitutes is a bit of a surprise as he is reported to have been in sensational form during pre-season.
Newcastle are without Joe Willock, who has been ruled out of today’s proceedings with a calf injury, while petulance’s Alexander Isak is obviously not involved. Aaron Ramsdale has to settle for a place on the bench, with Nick Pope keeping his place in goal, but there is a debut for Anthony Elanga on the right wing. Harvey Barnes will start on the left, with Anthony Gordon playing as a false nine.
Barely in the door, Malick Thiaw is among the Newcastle substitutes, along with South Korean teenager Park Seung-soo, who has apparently turned a few heads with good performances in pre-season.
Aston Villa v Newcastle United line-ups
Aston Villa: Bizot, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Digne, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Onana, Rogers, Watkins.
Subs: Wright, Pau, Maatsen, Buendia, Malen, Guessand, Iling-Junior, Jimoh.
Newcastle United: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton, Gordon, Barnes, Elanga.
Subs: Ramsdale, Hall, Botman, Thiaw, Krafth, Osula, Murphy, Seung-soo, Miley.
Premier League: Aston Villa v Newcastle
Villa Park is the venue for a match between two sides whose respective coaches whose pre-season preparations have been far from ideal. In his pre-match press conference yesterday, Unai Emery could be heard bemoaning the manner in which Aston Villa’s activity in the transfer market has been hamstrung by profit and sutainability rules, a state of affairs that prompted the Spaniard to tell reporters that his team have little or no chance of finishing in the top seven of the Premier League.
Villa’s only major investment this summer has been on the Nice Striker Evan Guessand, while the Turkish centre-back Yasin Ozcan and a couple of reserve goalkeepers have also arrived at Villa Park. Ozcan has already been loaned out to Anderlecht but Villa are hopeful of getting Marco Asensio back in on loan from Paris Saint-Germain after his productive spell in the Midlands last season.
His opposite number, Eddie Howe, has had similar issues but while Newcastle have missed out on several high profile targets, they have managed to bring Malick Thiaw (AC Milan), Aaron Ramsdale (Southampton), Anthony Elanga (Nottingham Forest) and Antonio Cordero (free after leaving Malaga) to St James’ Park. They are also understood to be in the process of wrapping up a deal to sign Jacob Ramsey from today’s opponents. Villa are in desperate need of the £40m profit they’ll generate from the sale of a highly regarded academy graduate to help their bean-counters balance the books.
Howe has also been forced to deal with the petulant and unseemly strop thrown by his star striker Alexander Isak, who is hankering after a move to Liverpool and has made it clear he has no intention of pulling on a Newcastle shirt again despite having three years left on his contract. Howe admitted yesterday that control of the situation is “not in my hands” but said he could envisage a scenario where Isak plays in his side again. It is one that would almost certainly involve no end of grovelling to unimpressed teammates, other club staff and fans from the Swede but we are unlikely to see any sign of him at Villa Park today.
With so much (or little, in the case of Villa) going on behind the scenes, it is to be presumed both managers will welcome the opportunity to put their off-field woes behind them and get down to the comparatively uncomplicated task of playing football. Kick-off is at 12.30pm but stay tuned in the meantime for team news and build-up. Villa will be out for a modicum revenge over the team that pipped them to the final Champions League qualification place on the final day of last season.
